We’re from the United Nations and we’re here to “help”

The American Spectator reviews the U.N.’s track record in Kosovo and wonders why certain people (cough Democrats cough) want to subject Iraq to the same mismanagement:

I mention this partly because conservatives, especially American ones, often are accused of being insufficiently deferential to the U.N. Allow me to remedy this state of affairs: the U.N. should be acknowledged for its role in perpetuating the chaos in Kosovo. Lest I judge too harshly, let me point out that the U.N.'s solution to the region's conflict is typical of its solution to every international conflict: announce that everything is fine, then hope reality cooperates.

It may be equally poor etiquette to argue that the U.N. inflamed ethnic rivalries. And yet, by willfully glossing over the long-simmering tensions between the Albanian Muslim majority and the Serbian Christian minority, the U.N.'s plan to preserve a single multiethnic state did exactly that. As last week's eruption of violence attests, the effect of the U.N. plan was akin to throwing a blanket over a bonfire. Bleak and bloody, Kosovo today is a testament to the shortsightedness of a U.N. administration and the fecklessness of its oversight.

Remember when Jesse Helms was withholding U.S. funding for the United Nations? With a Security Council chaired by Syria and Libya heading up the Human Rights Commission, it’s hard to fault him.